Far Cry 2 provoked strong reactions when it was released in 2008, with gamers rapidly dividing into Love It and Hate It camps. Now, Craig Lager takes a look back at what he considers an under-appreciated sequel and explains why he loves it when a plan comes together.

EDIT: It kinda peeves me off that alot of people say things like "FarCry 2 wasn't that bad" and "it had some really great ideas, just messed up on a couple of key points like driving and re-spawning enemies" yet almost everyone says Crysis was poor tech demo of a game. It genuinely baffles me how anyone could even remotely consider FC2 a superior game to Crysis, which had more ideas, more gameplay options, far better AI, more outright action and looked better.

__________________I made a mistake, I learnt from it. Never going near another console again, it's time to come back to the light.

It was a really (four letter word) game, you shouldn't be allowed to write an article like this, it might influence someone to spend some money on this crap, you should reimburse everyone of those poor saps!

I'm sorry, Far Cry 2 was underappreciated?! It was massively hyped and reviewers loved it. Anyone I know that actually played it, however - myself included - actually found it to be awful. I know you point this out at the start of the piece but that doesn't change the fact that I know a lot of people who were out and out p'd off that they spent their money on this game on the back of such rave reviews. Just because it has a few merits, it doesn't make up for the fact it's a dull, monotonous, senseless game.

Oh, and you're absolutely right, D-Cyph3r. Crysis is the game that has truly been underappreciated. I actually think it's a very fine FPS regardless of how amazing it still looks.

It had its problems but it did a lot of things right which is what this article points out. This has tempted me to try it again. I'm still put off by the way you can repair any car no matter what happened to it by using one tool in the same way. And by the endless checkpoints.

It did have some good, and great points. Sadly though, they only lasted for about an hour. Once you get into the respawning, the pointless battles on the road, the endless driving back and to and the fact that every shoot out ends up being the same because actually, you can go through all the planning you like, but you'll win with any gun you like if you take long enough.

Terrible article based on apparently the version of Far Cry 2 that all reviewers got to play but didn't reach the shops.

I make a point of completing almost every game that I play. Far Cry 2 was one of those few games that I didn't bother finishing. The random encounters and the cars that are mysteriously faster than yours just completely kill any fun.

The quicksave method was annoying too! Rather than just having one file that was overwritten, the game saved a new file each time. After each gaming session I had to go to the save game folder to manually remove them.

At the end of the day, the game absolutely failed to live up to the hype. I had a bad feeling about it but bought it anyway - what a waste of £30. This game was supposed to rival Crysis - EPIC FAIL.

I still like it. Or bits of it. Missions were really annoying, respawning checkpoints a pain. Like Craig says though, the idea of planning a big attack and then pulling it off was brilliant. I love simply roaming around, sneaking through areas, sniping enemies.

And, while the e-paper may have been silly, having a map in your lap while you drive was brilliant.

I totally agree with the article. Most people commenting only seem to have read the first page or something.

The great thing about FC2 is the bonds you create with the buddies, the world and your target, Jackal. Crysis was a crock of turd once the aliens showed up, devolving into a cave shooter.

FC2 is all about you. In no other game have I felt like being a really hardened African explorer, using resources sparingly to make sure I had enough bullets to take my target down. I've had on-foot chases through a shanty town that surpassed MW2's favelas, or a dashing escape as I jumped into a river from a 100 meter high rope bridge, escaping a bunch of angry soldiers after I detonated a mine inside the house of their leader.

Each mission spawns a story, different every time if you have the guts to risk different approaches. Knowing that almost nothing of this is scripted is just mind blowing.

Honestly, the only fault I find in the game is the lack of non adult male NPC's. There are no kids nor women. I understand that the target audience isn't mature enough for an Africa like the real one where women and children die everyday due to armed violence, but I would sincerely appreciate the honest brutality and reality in that.

I still like it. Or bits of it. Missions were really annoying, respawning checkpoints a pain. Like Craig says though, the idea of planning a big attack and then pulling it off was brilliant. I love simply roaming around, sneaking through areas, sniping enemies.

And, while the e-paper may have been silly, having a map in your lap while you drive was brilliant.

You're right - a lot of the planning for missions was rather excellent, but the checkpoints and hunting around for diamonds to be able to buy the good weapons before the end of the story was a near-dealbreaker for me.

With a few tweaks FC2 could be a truly epic game imo, it's crying out for a mod pack.

I got it free with my gfx card. For a free game, it was brilliant. But i probably wouldn't of spent £30 on it.
I liked the fixed checkpoints that always had a constant supply of cannon fodder for the times i couldn't be bothered with the plot.
Also the game looked good. Really good. Especially on fire.

Sorry, I think you should replace under with over. Even with all the bad press, FC2 was still over-appreciated. The only thing it got right were its graphics. As far as the rest is concerned, I completely agree with Fractal.

I liked it... for most of the reasons listed in the article. But then I do have a slightly strange play style bordering on perfectionism. Going to great lengths to get as many diamonds as possible, conserving ammo and health, re loading loads of time when I died...

I think, like STALKER, it's a game that needs massive modding to really fulfil it's potential. Unlike STALKER though few people found it initially interesting enough to want to put the work in and there was no effort by Ubisoft to support those that did.

The whole business with the respawning checkpoints bothered me most I think, it felt like the devs didn't trust my attention span and thought that if I wasn't getting shot at nearly all the time I'd wander off. What they failed to appreciate is that action without meaning or consequence rapidly gets boring.

Have to wonder if there has ever been a case of franchise necromancy (where a company picks up a 'dead' intellectual property and makes a sequel to it without any of the original devs) that has ever been any good.